Summer Professorship
Supporting innovative approaches to graduate education through faculty and student collaboration.
The School of Graduate Studies supports innovation in graduate education through its Summer Professorship program. The program provides funding for faculty-led projects that explore new approaches, address emerging challenges, and identify opportunities to enhance graduate education and the graduate student experience at the University of North Dakota.
Each year, Summer Professorships are awarded to support projects addressing the broad theme of Innovations to Graduate Education. Projects may focus on improving graduate student success, strengthening academic programs, developing new approaches to mentoring and professional development, or advancing evidence-based practices in graduate education.
Areas of Focus
The broad theme of the Summer Professorship program is Innovations to Graduate Education. Projects may address a range of topics related to the changing needs of graduate students, academic disciplines, and the workforce. Areas of focus include:
- Advancing innovative and inclusive approaches to graduate education to improve student success, retention, time-to-degree, teaching effectiveness, career readiness, and overall satisfaction, including the effective and ethical use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
- Enhancing career preparation and professional development for graduate students across a broad range of career pathways, including academic and non-academic careers, external funding preparation, internships, and other experiential learning opportunities.
- Supporting graduate students’ well-being and holistic development, including initiatives that address mental health, work-life balance, professional ethics, mentoring relationships, and reflection on building meaningful and sustainable careers.
- Strengthening community, industry, and interdisciplinary engagement among graduate students and faculty, including initiatives that foster sustained collaboration across campus and external partners.
- Strengthening graduate education practices in recruitment, admissions, orientation, and retention strategies to remain responsive to rapidly evolving contemporary world.
- Encouraging curriculum and program innovation that allows graduate education to adapt to evolving educational, research, and workforce needs, including the transfer or scaling of evidence-based practices across disciplines or contexts.
- Support research, assessment, and evidence-based improvement in graduate education and the graduate student experience.
Each Summer Research Professorship provides the following support:
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Faculty stipend: $10,000 for the faculty member leading the project.
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Graduate Research Assistantship: A ½-time GRA for a graduate student who will work collaboratively with the faculty member on the project.
The award supports summer research and project activities that have the potential to inform, improve, or advance graduate education at UND.
Applications must include the following materials:
- Project Description
- Shortened Curriculum Vitae
- Departmental Approval or Support
Project Description
Project description should be a minimum of 2-3 pages and is not to exceed 8 typed, single-spaced pages, including tables, figures, and references (if applicable). It is understood that any academic research proposal will employ the technical vocabulary of the researcher’s field of specialization. However, since proposals for Summer Research Fellowships are evaluated and approved or rejected by faculty members from a variety of disciplines, technical language often proves an obstacle rather than an aid to fair evaluation. As such, applicants should write their proposals in non-specialist’s language. Such a description should be sufficiently detailed but at the same time sufficiently non-technical to give the reviewers, who may not have a specialized knowledge of the applicant’s field of research, a firm grasp of what the project is, how it will be carried out, and what it can be expected to accomplish. The description should be organized around the following points:
Purpose
Explain the objectives of the project, giving the basic ideas, problems, or research questions to be examined, and indicate in a general way how these will be explored and developed and with what goals in mind.
Significance
- Describe the contribution this project can be expected to make to graduate education and in what field(s) of study. If appropriate, discuss both specific and technical contributions and more general significance of dealing with these particular ideas and problems.
- Indicate the contribution this project will make to graduate education at UND and, if applicable, to graduate education more broadly conceived; explain its significance and value to the UND/disciplinary/graduate education communities, as relevant.
History
Describe the previous development, if any, of the project, its current state, stages yet to be completed, the plans for each stage, and how the work proposed under this project fits into the whole. If appropriate, elaborate on the relationship of the project to work already done by others in the field.
Plan of Work
Give a clear and detailed plan of work on this project, including the expected timetable of what is to be done, when, and where. An adequate description should be given to any special methods, procedures, and experiments to be employed.
Expected Results
Indicate as specifically as possible what results can reasonably be anticipated from this project. For example: Who (students/faculty/department/university) will benefit from the work and how? How will the project promote graduate education at UND? Will the project result in public presentations, journal articles, or a book? It is expected that the applicant will review and evaluate the progress and success of the project on the basis of the Project Description both during the project and at its completion.
Previous Summer Professorship Awardees
The following faculty members and graduate students have received Summer Professorship awards. Their projects reflect the range of topics and approaches supported through the program.
2026
AI-Powered Advising and Retention Companion for Graduate Education
Dr. Enrique Alvarez Vazquez, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Collins Obeng, PhD Biomedical Engineering student
Navigating AI in Graduate Education: A Mixed-Methods Study of AI Use, Beliefs, and Implications for Mentorship and Well-Being
Dr. Akorede Teriba, Department of Education, Health & Behavior Studies
Amber Peterson, PhD Counseling Psychology student
Nisha Kate Wadhwani, PhD Counseling Psychology student
2025
Transforming Space Graduate Education for a New and Better Generation of Space Professionals
Dr. Francisco Del Canto Viterale, Department of Space Studies
Sai Susmitha Guddanti, PhD Aerospace Sciences student
2024
Measuring Efficacy of Innovative Graduate Programming: Mixed Methods Research and Photovoice to Better Understand Graduate Indigenous Health Scholars' Perceptions of Summer Seminar
Dr. Shawnda Schroeder, Department of Indigenous Health
Gem Wilson, PhD Indigenous Health student
2023
Career Readiness and Pathways in Autonomous Systems Graduate Programs
Dr. Radomir Ray Mitic, Department of Education, Health, & Behavior Studies
Muhammad Salahuddin, PhD Education, Foundations, & Research student
Redesigning EECS 500 Graduate Seminar
Dr. Emanuel Grant, School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Jenice Lynch, PhD Computer Science student
Strengthening the Future of STEM: Mentors Helping Mentors
Dr. Diane Darland, Department of Biology
Blessing Okosun, PhD Biology student